More Than My Own Life
by Helia18
Summary: Please R
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 

Nessie's Voice

All fairy tales have to end somewhere I suppose. The second time my Aunt Alice saw the Volturi coming for us, there was no way out that she could see.

I dropped to the floor my face a mask of true horror. The vision she let me see had me standing alone or me ending the world. My Jake crossed the room in two strides and wrapped himself around me as if he would never let go. He barked, "What the hell did you show her?"

I shuddered. "It's the Volturi. Again. We're not walking away this time."

Alice continued, "They know what they're facing and for what they want this time they're willing to die down to the last guard." Her eyes met mine. "Nessie, you're going to have to leave. They want you."

"What about you? Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma …. Jake? You're just going to stand here and wait to die? Can't you come with me? There's got to be somewhere to go. I'm sure our friends with stand with us again." The world started spinning as I felt my chest constricting, my heart hammering its way out. "Not fair, Uncle Jasper" I called as I felt a wave of calm start to wash over me. "Let me settle this for myself"

I looked around the home I'd known all my life. We had been packing to leave anyway, but leaving to run for my life was not exactly how I'd pictured going. At least Jake would be going with me. Wouldn't he? I replayed the vision, no Jake. That's when it really hit me and I started sobbing.

My dad saw the tangle of my thoughts chasing themselves in ever growing circles around my face and shook his head. "You have to go right now before there's time to track you. Demetri is already starting the search."

Mom smacked him in the back of his head. "Aren't we going to at least _try _to fight instead of roll over and die?"

He nodded. "We will. As soon as you decide where to send her and get her on a plane without telling any of us where you're sending her."

I could see mom considering smacking him again. I couldn't help but bite back a small giggle. Seven years, and they still acted like infatuated teenagers. I counted my day blessed if I didn't trip over them. A heat rose to my face as I hoped I would always be that way with Jake. My stomach dropped again. If I didn't fix what Alice saw, there wouldn't be a me and Jake. "Why do they want me, anyway? Didn't they give up on Joham's experiments as too risky years ago?"

Alice shook her head, her eyes still distant. "Aro wants you. He thinks your projections have gotten to a point that he and the council could venture out in the day with you at their side convincing people they were seeing nothing unusual."

Mom moved forward. I knew how distraught she was when she said, "Alice, pack some things for Renesmee. Pack for any possible climate. I'm still deciding where to send her."

"And me, Bella. Send me with her," Jake said for the first time looking up from my shoulder. "I can keep her safe."

I stood up. "Hey! First, stop talking around me. Second, Jake, I'm able to take care of myself. Trust me. I have to go by myself." My head seemed to at least pause in its swirling for a few moments. I looked into Jake's eyes shimmering with need. I shook myself, almost peeved at the situation. I was born for Jacob but the nature of my birth and my gifts made me a life-long target for the Volturi. Not only was I be one of the few living vampire-human hybrids, but I also had inherited my parents' talents. No one could keep my mind out, no one could get into my mind, and according to Alice I had lately been showing some slight awareness of the future. Thankfully, nothing dramatic like her visions.

Jake looked back at me like he was going to fight not going with me. "The pack needs you. They're going to have to face the Volturi too."

Luckily the chaos was smaller than it could have been. Carlisle was still at the hospital, Esme was in Vermont working on the new house, and Rose and Jasper were out hunting. Everyone had planned on meeting up for my birthday party tonight though. "Esme! I'm supposed to be picking her up from the airport!"

Dad said, "I'll pick her up when I'm dropping you off.

I felt a warm hand twine it's way into mine. "Let's go for a run, Nessie?"

"Now, Jake? Seriously? I have to pack, and say goodbye, and …"

He kissed away my falling tears. "You'll be more comfortable on the plane if you've hunted." He ran across the patio for the river shedding shirt and shorts, shimmering as he went.

Mom and Dad walked up behind me enfolding me in their arms. I started sobbing all over again. Then I did something I'd never done before. Just like Mom had taught me, I closed my father completely out of my thoughts. My hand reached up and touched the locket I'd always worn. 'More than my own life.' That's why I had to leave. I wasn't planning on staying where they sent me. I was going to kill Aro."

I lifted my head at the short, impatient yap from the woods and pulled myself away. "Coming, Jake."

Jake was waiting for me in our clearing. I stopped cold. He was waiting on one knee, with a ring box dangling from a string tied to his wrist. I turned to go stammering, "I, I can't - not now."

He stood and dashed to catch me. "Nessie, I was going to do this right. Tonight, at the party. But I'm going to say this now. I love you more than anything. I would walk this Earth anywhere with you. I would be fighting to go with you right now if what I saw in your eyes didn't tell me there was some reason I can't go more than what you said in there. You know about the imprint. But what I feel for you goes far beyond that. I want you not just for today, but for tomorrow, and all the tomorrows after that. You don't have to answer now, but when you come home I want you as my wife."

I turned back to face him. "I want you too, more than anything."

Words ran dry as we kissed with a passion that would have lit the forest on fire if I'd been capable of noticing. The flames were only fanned as our clothes began to fall like rain.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Is there really a happily ever after, or is it a happily until your world comes crashing down around you? Neither, I thought. It's as happy as you make it. I felt a glowing wave of love wash over me as I looked down at the man curled beside me. He had fallen into a doze but even in his sleep glowed with contentment and love.4

I reluctantly traced my fingers down the side of his face and when that did not work, tickled the tip of his nose.

"Unfortunately love, we have to get back before someone comes looking for us."

His only response was rolling over to pull me back down into a heated run of kisses. When we finally came up for air his response was, "It's not been that long. They can just wait. I need longer to show just how much I love you."

"I want forever to show how much I love you," I replied. "If you can find where the ring went in the melee could you please do the honors and put it on me? I was wrong to say I wanted to wait until I could promise you my tomorrows. I need you to know that before I go."

Jake found the ring amid a scatter of fallen leaves. "Stay with me forever," he murmured as he slipped it on my hand.

He rolled back down to the forest floor and snuggled down next to me, into the pile of leaves that had become our bed. I traced my hand lazily along every single curve and muscle. The ring on my left hand and my skin caught the sun, creating a cloud of rainbows around us. Mom's ring. Her blessing and acceptance of Jacob and I. My eyes began to tear up recalling everything Jake had gone through. He'd left home and family and could only watch as his best friend crossed to a land he could never reach.

I never wondered how Jake's feelings could have changed so seemingly radically. I knew he had never truly loved my mother in the way he thought he had. I could feel the truth of it humming through the iron and silk cord of our imprint.

That cord was also the reason I could not let him go with me. If I got killed, I wanted him to live on. There would be no way he could live if he was there and saw me die.

"You really won't let me go with you?," he murmured.

It took everything I had to push him away. "I saw Alice's vision and I have a feeling of my own. It's not about whether I want you with me or not. It's a matter of something I must do on my own. I have no intention of just going into hiding and waiting for you to face the Volturi when they get here and find me gone."

He nodded. "That's why I want to go with you. Who knows how long it will be before I see you again? And what if you need help with whatever you're planning?"

I almost broke down at that. I was pretty sure it wouldn't be more than a month, but I was planning an assault into Volterra ending in my killing Aro. One just did not think of it being guaranteed you would walk away from such a thing alive.

I reached up and put my hand on Jake's lips to still them. "I _will _be back. Volturi nor heaven nor hell will be able to stand between us."

Jake took my hand as we turned to ran back to the house.

I realized my distraction. "Uh, Jake, we really need to find our clothes first before we go.

Jacob laughed. He took my hand and squeezed it as we raced into our forever that would be as soon as I could save it.

Back at the house, I was swept into a whirlwind of hugs and goodbyes. I felt a hand slip something into my carry-on but I would deal with that later. Before climbing into the car, I found Mom standing in the crowd and moved to speak to her one last time. "Please tell Esme how sorry I am to have missed her. Myself, I'd tell her I've gotten sick and had to be taken to the CDC in Atlanta for testing then tell her the real reason," I grinned evilly.

Dad mistook my silence in the car for despair. He kept a good-natured running commentary going that I'm certain was designed to reassure me but what I was really thinking about was what I was going to do. I'd decided the single heroine into the maws of danger idea, while romantic, was entirely unsuitable. I needed back up, to get an audience, then to get Aro to do something stupid enough even his own Guard and Council could not help but execute him. I wished I had Uncle Jasper and Dad to help with the strategy, but decided I'd just have to trust my own instincts.

Apparently, I was so involved in my thoughts that it took Dad at least five minutes to get my attention and tell me we'd arrived at the airport. Turning and hugging him fiercely, I murmured "You'd better send for me to come home soon. I've got a wedding to plan." The shocked and slightly enraged look on his face worried me. "Dad, be happy for me. I'll be getting everything I've ever wanted since I was a baby. Don't you dare and take it out on my Jacob."

With that, I turned and left before tears could overtake me. Stopping just inside the front door, I opened my backpack and found a boarding pass to Rio De Janeiro. Grinning, I wondered if Mom's dreams from the past were actually more than an overactive imagination. Then I noticed the departure time and cursed a bit. Thirty minutes to make it to the gate. At least my travel papers were in order. I grinned looking down at my passport from seven years ago. The picture, age, and physical description had changed but I was still named "Vanessa Wolfe."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jacob's Voice

Oh, joy. A family war council that didn't know how to be a war council. Don't get me wrong. They had taken down the newborn army and bluffed off the Voluturi once. Jasper had been deeply involved in the southern wars. Because of his gentle nature Carlisle had been left out of any Volturi Council planning sessions when he'd been there.  
But even in all their combined years of experience they, with the exception of Jasper, had only dealt with short-range skirmishes. Never any long-range pack fighting like the Volturi were capable of. 

So far about all they had was the stance. Carlisle at the head of the table, Jasper at his right, Edward at his left, and everyone else somewhere in between with the best fighters and thinkers closest to Carlisle. Not that I wasn't the best fighter or thinker. I was now appearing on behalf of the new family of Nessie and myself. 

What they didn't have was the killer instinct for dealing with something like the Volturi. They stood like children deciding how to pick off the school bully. Somehow I would have to get them to understand what they were doing long range. 

Carlisle began. "The choices that stand before us are few and mostly dismal. Sit and wait or fight. Either way, all we can probably hope to do is getting Nessie enough time to disappear far out of their reach. 

I cleared my throat, "Or option three. We take grievance against the Volturi that their acquiring Nessie is an unlawful act. Either they have to prove with witnesses they have a claim to Nessie, prove she wants to join, or admit to kidnapping. They can't attack us without stepping outside their own law. 

Mouths dropped open. 

"What? I used Carlisle's books and studied every bit of Volturi law in them in case I ever had to protect Nessie again from those leeches. "How else do you think I spent my time over here while she slept? I didn't just sit there watching her sleep all dreamy eyed and drooling like some." I rolled my eyes at Edward. 

Emmett was the first to break out laughing. Jasper nodded. Carlisle said, "A very possible solution." Does anyone else have something to add?"  
"How about I rip off their heads and dance on their ashes?" the normally controlled Bella observed. Taking in the surrounding looks of shock she shrugged. "They're after my baby! I'm allowed a little mama tiger reaction. Edward would have probably said worse if I hadn't beat him to it." 

Edward punched Bella on the shoulder. "War council, remember? I can hardly believe we're going to war, but there isn't much else to call it. If the grievance idea works, great. But we're going to need something to keep the Volturi from circling around every few years to pick us off." 

I paced. Were I a wolf my tail would be lashing and my jaws would be snapping. I growled, "We sit here playing toy soldiers but do any of you get what's at stake? I can buy you time with the farce of a trial. We can buy Nessie time to get away with a fight if that doesn't work, but what good will that do if we all end up dead?" 

"What would you suggest then,?" hissed Rosalie. "Kill off the Volturi? Because nothing short of that will stop them. If we take that step though, what are we going to do to keep our world in order? Would we become the new Volturi?" 

Finally they got it. 

Carlilse sank into his chair feeling the weight of the idea being born. "No, never that. But perhaps new leaders within the Volturi. They do not have to be entirely corrupt. Aro I fear is past the point of insanity. Marcus I believe has a good heart if he would just step up and do something. Caius, though, is just as bad as Aro." 

Esme added, "What if the Volturi could be left primarily as they are, but with new leadership - international leadership, not us." 

Jasper picked up the thread. "With at least harm humans minimally - alternate blood source preferred membership requirement." 

Bella stood. "Alice, start trying to track everyone who stood with us last and anyone new who would be friendly to us - particularly Garrett and Kate. It's time to gather for a declaration of independence. And we need revolutionaries like them to help us write it."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Nessie's Voice

I continued raving about lunch as we got into the car.

Nahuel snorted. "Fish stew. Now I know it's been a while since you've eaten human food. When we're back to the cabin I can take you hunting for something decent."

"And what would be decent in your book?"

"Anything that doesn't involve fish or deep-frying."

I huffed, "I could learn to live without the fish maybe, but no way on the deep-frying."

Closing the door behind me, Nahuel leaned in inches from my face and stroked a sweat-soaked curl away from my forehead. I turned my head aside and pressed as far back in my seat as I could.

"Please don't," I whispered. I found myself really not wanting to hurt him, but not even able to consider him for a millisecond. All I saw was Jake.

"Sorry, no offense meant. Can we forget that and continue as friends?"

I nodded. "I actually do appreciate you as a friend even as annoying as you are"

"I'll take that, but I'm still not giving up hope."

Silence settled in around us.

A couple of hundred miles down the road Nahuel asked, "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Mostly brooding. Trying to figure out how I'm going to get out of this alive. Just when I have the world, now I have the world to fight for it."

"Not the entire world, just Aro. " He smirked, "How much trouble could that be?"

I glanced over at him like he'd grown a second head then silence descended again. Not for long, though, because I soon asked, "Half human break please? I'm getting hungry again."

Chuckling, Nahuel pulled over. "I used to eat everything in sight when I was your age too."

"I hope it stops soon. This is getting ridiculous. Any chance of finding something deep fried and some chocolate?"

Nahuel wrinkled his nose and rolled his eyes. "How did I know that was probably what you were going to ask for? Just eat it outside the car so I don't have to smell it and look at it for the next fifty or so miles."

"It isn't going to last even that long, don't worry."

A rush of thoughts started tumbling through my head. I forcefully swatted them aside as impossible. Futilely, I quickly tried to squash them as impossible, before they could even take full shape. But they wouldn't leave. I had eaten more human food in the past fourteen hours than I'd eaten in two years. And when did I ever start craving anything deep fried? Disgusting human habit. Can't think of any thing else to do with it, batter it & fry it. No matter what it was. Chocolate, though I understood.

With a sickening flash, I remembered Emily and a bowl of deep-fried something I didn't even want to identify with ice - cream - balanced on a hugely pregnant stomach.

No way, no way, no way. God possibly couldn't have a sense of humor that twisted. But I'd been with Jake before I left. Mom said with me it took any once. I dropped my hand to my belly at once, feeling for any sign of a bump. Finding none, I sighed with relief. Just the heat and the journey getting to me.

Turning , Nahuel said, "Are you sure you aren't sick? I've never seen that shade of green on a hybrid's face. Not to mention that strange an expression."

I shook my head. "I'll be alright. Just get me to where I can eat and rest a few minutes. Also, if you don't keep any human food we need to get some. I have the sinking feeling I'll be eating a lot of the stuff for at least a couple days. Do they keep a kitchen for you?"

"To quote a movie you used to drive me nuts with, 'Dorothy, you aren't in Kansas anymore.' No, we don't have a kitchen. What we can gather in the forest suffices."

Hating the whine to my voice I asked "Is there at least someplace we can pick up some eggs?"

Nahuel snorted. "I'll see what I can arrange."

We pulled up to a small market town where Nahuel left me in the shade of a tree drowsing. He woke me gently and handed me churros with chocolate sauce, I practically squealed. "Kid, you really know how to take care of a lady."

In answer to his gleam I replied, "Still no chance."

I was nowhere near so happy with his arrangement for eggs. We ended up spending what felt like hours in the car with two cranky chickens who kept up a non-stop commentary so loud little could be heard. "I should have known you'd come up with something like this," I shouted.

"You did not specify how you wanted to get your eggs milady," he tossed right back. "And unless you want your egg sources becoming someone else's breakfast you'll be the one cleaning their cages and feeding them," he shouted.

Great. Twist that knife a little deeper. I sat softly growling and wondering how to wipe that smirk off his face.

When we got to the cabin, the first thing I did was run into Zafrina's arms. The entire story from the vision to my engagement to my flight and to my sort of plan came spilling out.

Kachiri joined in the hug, Huilen just looked stunned.

Huilen said, "You plan an assault on Volterra? This is madness. It will see you and anyone near you dead."

I looked her in the eyes, my face a mask of stone. "I do not ask for your good opinion. Nor do I ask any of you to fight and die with me. I just need help shaping my plan into something better than walking in to a hornet's nest and proceeding to poke it with a stick. Oh, and somehow getting back out again alive."

Kachiri glared at Huilen. "We'll help you with that and anything else you need. None of us are afraid to stand beside you. Are you planning on walking in or being dragged in?"

"I'm not too certain on that point. Walking in, I'm more in control but I run the risk of being taken out by the guards. Dragged in, I'm under their control and in danger of being killed before I even make it to Aro. There are many who would not be too happy with his choice to add me to the Guard," I answered.

Huilen said, "I'm surprised you're hearing about this only now. About two months ago Demetri and Felix made the rounds to anyone who knew the Cullens or where they might be. They were putting out the word that Aro would award a place in the Guard and a fortune to anyone who could bring you in. I'm guessing no one has had the cajones or everyone is assuming it's a trap."

I thought a moment. If one of them were to bring me in, I would be more protected. "From what I've heard that would be just like Aro. I don't want to lead any of you into a trap, but it seems the best way to do this is for me to be dragged in as a captive then kill him in self defense when he lunges at me for pissing him off royally." "Darling, the Aro I saw years ago never lunges at anyone. What is your plan if you can't get him to lunge?" asked Zafrina.

"I don't know yet. I wonder if I could separate Marcus from Aro's and Caius' influence, he might be willing to help me stand against him. From Grandpa's stories Marcus seems to be very dissatisfied with the Council for some reason, and is only marginally being kept in line between Chelsea and Alec practically drugging him. I'm mostly still working on getting in there. The idea of being dragged in stinks too much of a trap. But can anyone name a better option?" I looked around, but there were no offers. "So who's going to bring me in?"

"I will," Nahuel stated. "The Volturi don't know me well enough to expect anything I can do. They're conditioned to think of anyone less than a pure-blood vampire as weak. If it comes down to a fight, I'll be best able to protect you."

I began to protest that if anyone would need saving, it would be him but that was cut short when I started sweating badly and feeling a little dizzy. "Not to be impolite, but is there anywhere we can get out of the heat and I can sit down? Just a few hours then we need to get going."

Huilen shot me an odd look. "We do actually have air conditioning for the odd human guest. Our Nahuel has become a bit of a tribal celebrity. Apparently he looks an awful lot like the daughter of a long dead leader or someone." She smiled ruefully. "Couldn't think who."

Nahuel deferred. "I'm not that much of a celebrity. I'm only teaching the language I've recovered and how to farm better to stave off dwindling population." He turned to my shocked look. "So far my cover of anthropology student has been holding. As well as some long forgotten ancestor having run away from their area. Luckily people have a tendency to see only what they want to see."

I grouched. "Not seeing what they're all that enchanted by."

"A hit, a veritable hit, Lady," he quoted.

My hand flew to my mouth and I gasped. "I'm sorry. You've been nothing but a perfect host. It's just this heat and feeling off. Is there anywhere I can lay down and take a nap?"

Huilen laid her arm around my shoulders. "Probably just a fever. Even Nahuel picked one up once. Some can be downright nasty even for hybrids. Come on, I'll get a pallet made up for you."

Zafrina's Voice

I followed Nessie with worried eyes all the way into the cabin. If that girl had a fever I'd be surprised. Despite what Huilen said, even Nahuel had never been sick for even a few hours. A couple of thoughts stirred, but I sincerely hoped none of them were true. If the first of my suspicions was true, Caius would not only clamor for Nessie to be torn limb from limb but he would want war declared on the Cullens.

I asked, "Did she do or say anything odd on the way over?"

Nahuel considered a moment. "Does mentioning a sudden craving for human food, going into ecstasies about fish stew, needing food about every hour and a half, and considering churros with chocolate sauce heaven sound weird to you? Just a normal teenage hybrid to me."

At my considering look he added, "She's such a tiny slip of a thing that by the time any of that would mean anything she'd be showing at least a bit of a bump."

"And how close have you been looking? Too close for an engaged, possibly pregnant, woman probably."

"But you have to admit she's the only hybrid we know of who isn't my sister. And how attached could he really be to let someone like her out of his sight for even a moment?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Always with the hormones, never with the brain. He would have had to with someone like her telling him to do it. And she must have some earth-shattering reason to do it.

Go get some hunting done, focusing on what a possible human/ werewolf/ vampire cub would need. I'm guessing red meat, and a lot of it. And bring back something live back in case she sicks up all over the place after her nap. She probably isn't balancing her diet right poor thing. From what she's said, you've fed her nothing but junk since getting here. Oh, and before you go get those chickens someplace where they will be out of my range of smell and won't make a mess."

Nahuel nodded. "I'll get Huilen and Kachiri together and get a message to Aro telling him we've got something he's been looking for."


End file.
